KABUL (Reuters) - American soldiers helping Afghan troops fight Islamic State in Afghanistan were forced to abandon equipment and weapons when their position came under fire, a U.S. military official said on Tuesday.

Islamic State fighters have circulated photographs of a rocket launcher, grenades, ammunition, identification cards, an encrypted radio and other equipment that they said they had seized.

U.S. military spokesman General Charles Cleveland said the loss had happened during fighting in Nangarhar, a province in eastern Afghanistan, in July in which at least five special forces soldiers were wounded, but he denied that any American positions were overrun.

"We have been able to determine that the I.D. card and most of the pictured equipment was lost during recent operations in southern Nangarhar," he said in a statement.

Cleveland said a location set up to deal with casualties - a routine step in any operation - had come under "effective enemy fire" and the soldiers moved to a safer position.

"In the course of moving the (casualty collection point) to a safe location, some equipment was left behind," he said.

Despite the sensitive nature of some of the items, Cleveland said he did not expect there would be "any measurable operational impact" from the loss.

"For understandable reasons, the lives of soldiers were not put at risk to recover the equipment," he said.

At the time, military officials said five soldiers were wounded by small arms fire and shrapnel during fighting that spanned July 24 and 25.

Two of the wounded returned to duty and the three others were expected to make a full recovery, Army General John Nicholson said in July.

U.S. troops and aircraft have been taking a more active role against Islamic State after President Barack Obama authorized more military support for the Afghan government.

Airbus Helicopters has secured a vital vote of confidence in its troubled H225, with an order from Kuwait for 30 examples of the military variant.

To be operated by the country's air force and a new aviation unit of the national guard, the H225M fleet will be used for a wide variety of missions including combat search and rescue, naval operations and medical evacuation.

No details have been released on delivery timings or the value of the contract, which also includes a support and services package.

In June last year Kuwait signalled its intention to acquire as many as 24 Caracals. It currently operates a fleet of 11 older SA330 Puma and AS332 Super Puma variants, Flight Fleets Analyzer data shows, as well as 14 SA342 Gazelles which have an average age of more than 40 years.

As well as helping to bolster Airbus Helicopters’ depleted backlog for the type, the commitment from the Middle Eastern state is a rare piece of good news for the programme.

All civil Super Puma flights were grounded following a fatal crash in Norway in late April on concerns over the 11t-class helicopter’s gearbox.

Although the H225M was not affected by the ruling, new sales have been in limbo, with prospective military orders from Singapore, and to a lesser extent Poland, seemingly stalled because of the civil flight ban.

Rival manufacturer Leonardo recently expressed confidence that it could secure orders from those nations, based on the problems being suffered by the H225.

MOSCOW --- The Moroccan Armed Services may receive the export version of the Sukhoi Su-34 (NATO reporting name: Fullback) tactical bomber and Amur-1650 diesel-electric submarine, according to the Izvestia daily citing a source in Russia’s shipbuilding industry.

According to experts, Morocco has good reasons for acquiring Russian combat gear, but the export of Amur-1650 submarines is unlikely to commence before 2020.

Rabat and Moscow are discussing the feasibility of the Moroccan Navy’s Amur-1650 submarine acquisition in the format of consultations so far. The ship Morocco has taken interest in is an export version of the Russian-built Project 677 Lada-class (Petersburg-class) diesel-electric submarine. She is to feature the air-independent propulsion (AIP) plant designed to make it unnecessary for her to surface in order to recharge her batteries.

If the Moroccan Navy buys an Amur-1650, the move will boost its capabilities, because the submarine will carry Club cruise missiles - an export variant of the Kalibr (SS-N-27 Sizzler).

Interestingly, Morocco, according to the local media, also is keen on Russian warplanes, particularly the export version of the Su-34 bomber that has also grabbed the attention of Oman and Jordan after it had taken part in the operation in Syria. Ostensibly, Rabat needs advanced weaponry to fight terrorists, but experts presume a confrontation with its neighbor Algeria is a more likely reason. Algeria has been buying Russia’s submarines and Sukhoi jets for a long time.

Nikolai Sukhov, researcher with the Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, and vice-president, International Middle East Studies Club, says Morocco and Algeria have been at odds over Western Sahara for decades. The two countries also claim to be regional powerhouses. They are not about to fight each other, but they try to maintain the balance of forces.

According to the expert, buying the submarine is a matter of prestige to Rabat, because Algeria has a submarine fleet and Morocco has not yet, and Su-34s may come in handy to Morocco to handle quite specific missions, e.g. to counter the Saharan insurgents.

Algeria is switching over to French, US and Chinese armament in hopes to gain an advantage, while Morocco has turned its attention to products of Russia’s defense industry. The king and his inner circle have no prejudice against Russia, all the more so that the latter offers attractive financial terms.

According to the military industry, the export of AIP submarines is worth a long hard look at, because Amur submarines are, first and foremost, sophisticated in terms of operation, and it is not clear if the buyers are capable of operating them effectively or not. Russia has only two ships like that so far - one in trial operation and the other in construction, i.e. none has entered service with the Russian Navy yet, and offering a technology like that for export would not be quite right.

Naval expert Vladimir Shcherbakov has explained to the Izvestia daily that to form a submarine force is expensive. A submarine’s cost includes those of an on-shore simulator, a support system and personnel training. Usually, her cost also includes that of the first weapons suite - torpedoes and missiles that are worth far more than several dozen million dollars.

In Shcherbakov’s opinion, Morocco would better buy Project 636 (Improved Kilo-class) subs - proven, upgraded, Club-carrying and capable of dealing with any targets. Their only drawback is the lack of the AIP capability but the latter is important to operations conducted far in the ocean. It will take some time to complete the development of the Project 677 submarine, which first example is still in trial operation.

However, Russian engineers are hopeful that the problem will be resolved within several years. A Project 677 ship will be the first to receive the advanced power plant. The Rubin Central Design Bureau is looking into the integration of the AIP compartment with the submarine, according to the Izvestia daily. -

The US Army’s Security Assistance Command did not respond to repeated requests for information on where the work to upgrade the tanks would take place.

Saudi Arabia also requested M1A2 tanks this year but Congress blocked the proposed $1.15 billion sale due to growing concerns over the country’s bombing campaign in Yemen.

The proposed tank upgrade deal comes on top of a heap of other pending FMS deals this month that include Chinook helicopters for Saudi Arabia, Apache helicopters for the United Arab Emirates and TOW missiles to Morocco.

If completed the possible sales posted in December would have a cumulative total of $9.6 billion. And DSCA’s notification total has risen to just under $44 billion through the first two-and-a-half months of fiscal 2017.

Kuwait intends to upgrade its fleet of 218 M1A2 Abrams tanks to significantly improve their crews' ability to respond to infantry threats while remaining protected inside the vehicle by adding a remote weapon station (RWS) and a .50-calibre machine gun mounted externally on the main gun.

The plan was revealed by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) on 13 December, when it announced that the Department of State had approved the sale of an upgrade package estimated to be worth USD1.7 billion.

The package includes the Common Remotely Operated Weapons Station (CROWS) II and Counter Sniper and Anti-Materiel Mount (CSAMM) for the Kuwaiti tanks.

The M153 CROWS II is a version of the Kongsberg Protector RWS that replaces the .50-calibre machine gun mount above the commander's hatch on the Abrams and can be fitted with a variety of weapons. Kuwait has requested the low-profile version that has less impact on the commander's field of view.

The CSAMM is a stabilised mount that enables a .50-calibre machine gun to be installed above the barrel of the tank's main gun to provide heavier firepower than the 7.62 mm M240 coaxial machine gun fitted inside the turret.

The package outlined by the DSCA includes 240 .50-calibre M2A1 machine guns, 480 7.62 mm M240 machine guns, and unspecified number of replacement barrels for the 120 mm main gun.

The optics on the Kuwaiti tanks will also be replaced with the installation of unidentified gunner's primary sights and second-generation thermal sights, and the package includes 1,085 sets of AN/PVS-7B night vision googles.

The DSCA listed "Special Armor" as part of the upgrade, suggesting it will include an applique armour kit to provide additional protection.

Other aspects of the upgrade include 240 AN/VRC-92E radios, embedded diagnostics, upgrade/maintenance of the tanks' engines and transmissions, and an improved thermal management system.

The US is looking at a major tank upgrade, but a weapon to counter it is already out there

The US Army is considering various systems to better shield tanks and armored vehicles from RPGs, antitank missiles, and other enemy fire.

But the latest version of the RPG, a staple in the arsenals of Russia and other forces, may already be a step ahead of the active-protection systems the US may soon adopt.

The Pentagon has purchased active-protection systems to test out on Abrams tanks and Bradley and Stryker armored vehicles, and may even mount them on lighter vehicles, like the successor to the Humvee, according to a report from Scout Warrior.

"The Army is looking at a range of domestically produced and allied international solutions from companies participating in the Army's Modular Active Protection Systems (MAPS) program," an Army official told Scout Warrior.

The Army intends to outfit Abrams tanks with the Israeli-made Trophy APS and Bradley vehicles with the Iron Fist system, which is also Israeli-made. It plans to put the US-made Iron Curtain system on Stryker vehicles. (The Army leased several of the Trophy systems last spring, working with the Marine Corps to test them.)
"The one that is farthest along in terms of installing it is ... Trophy on Abrams," Lt. Gen. John Murray, the Army's deputy chief of staff, said in a statement. "We're getting some pretty ... good results. It adds to the protection level of the tank."

Israeli's Merkava comes standard with the Trophy, as does Russia's new T-14 Armata. Both Israel's and Russia's tanks, as well as the UK's Challenger 2, are considered by US officials to be close to or at parity with the US's mainstay, the Abrams tank. (Though some officials don't consider the Armata fielded.)
As militaries have adopted active-protection systems and other means to up-armor tanks, arms makers have looked for new antitank weaponry to counter them. Whenever US vehicles equipped with APS join similarly outfitted vehicles in the field, they will face a new challenge from an old foe, the RPG.

Russian arms manufacturers first introduced the RPG — short for Ruchnoy Protivotankovyy Granatomet, meaning "handheld antitank grenade launcher," not "rocket-propelled grenade" — in 1949, updating it over the decades since.

The most recent variant, the RPG-30, unveiled in 2008, has a 105 mm tandem high explosive antitank round, and features a second, smaller-caliber projectile meant to bait the active-protection systems that have become common on armored vehicles in recent years.

A tandem HEAT round carries two explosive charges. One neutralizes a vehicle's reactive armor (which uses explosions to counter incoming projectiles), and the other is designed to penetrate the armor of the vehicle itself.

"The novelty of the Russian rocket launcher is that two rockets are fired at the target at the same time. One is a so-called 'agent provocateur' 42 mm in caliber, followed a bit later by a primary 105-mm tandem warhead rocket," Vladimir Porkhachyov, the director general of arms manufacturer NPO Bazalt, told Russian state news agency Tass of the RPG-30 in September 2015.

The RPG-30 reportedly cleared testing and went into active service with the Russian military sometime between 2012 and 2013. At that point, according to a 2015 report by Russian state-owned outlet Sputnik, the Pentagon put it on its list of "asymmetrical threats to the US armed forces."

The effectiveness of the RPG-30 against active-protection systems, and whether those systems need be upgraded to adapt to the RPG-30 and similar munitions, remains to be seen. But the RPG — though limited by the size of its warhead — has long been potent on the battlefield, even against modern tanks.

The previous model, the RPG-29, was introduced in 1991 and is still in service with the Russian armed forces. It fires a 105 mm tandem HEAT round and can also fire a thermobaric fuel-air round against bunkers and buildings.

Russian RPG-29s were used by Hezbollah in the mid-2000s, deployed against Israeli tanks and personnel during the 2006 Lebanon War.

According to a Haaretz report from the time, Hezbollah antitank teams using RPG-29s managed on some occasions to get through the armor of Israel's advanced Merkava tanks.

In other cases, Hezbollah fighters used the RPG-29 to fire on buildings containing Israeli troops, penetrating the walls.

"The majority of Israel Defense Forces ground troops casualties, both infantry and armored, were the result of special antitank units of Hezbollah," which used other antitank missiles as well, according to the Haaretz report, published in the final days of the conflict and citing intelligence sources.
Those RPG-29s were reportedly supplied to Hezbollah by the Syrian military, which got them from Russia. Moscow disputed those origins, however, with some suggesting they were exported from former Communist bloc countries after the fall of the Soviet Union.

In August 2006, a RPG-29 was used successfully against a British Challenger 2 tank in southern Iraq.

During operations in Al Amarah, an RPG-29 rocket defeated the reactive armor installed on the Challenger, penetrating the driver's cabin and blowing off half of one soldier's foot and wounding several other troops.

An Iraqi federal policeman fires an RPG toward ISIS militants during a battle in western Mosul. Thomson Reuters
UK military officials were accused of a cover-up in 2007, after it emerged that they hadn't reported the August 2006 incident.

Two years later, during fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City — a Shiite neighborhood in the Iraqi capital — a US M1 Abrams tank was damaged by an RPG-29.
(The US has long avoided reactive armor systems but accepted them in recent years as a cheap, easy way to up-armor vulnerable parts of the Abrams, particularly against RPGs.)

During fighting in Iraq, RPG-29s penetrated the armor on the Abrams tanks twice and the Challenger once, according to The National Interest. Other Abrams tanks in Iraq were knocked out by antitank missiles, like the Russian-made AT-14 Kornet.

The threat goes beyond tanks. Seven of eight US Army helicopters shot down in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2009 were brought down by RPGs.

RPGs remain in service around the world, filling the arsenals of both state and non-state actors, according to the Small Arms Survey. The weapon and parts for it have popped in arms bazaars in Libya in recent years.

The RPG-7, the RPG-29's predecessor, would be or would likely be used by forces in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, as well as Central, South, and East Asia.

Regular and irregular forces in Latin America also have RPGs, and the weapons have made their way into the hands of criminal groups in the region. The Jalisco New Generation cartel reportedly used one to down a Mexican military helicopter in early 2015.

WASHINGTON --- The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Kuwait for M1A1 Abrams Tanks. The estimated cost is $29 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale today.

The Government of Kuwait has requested a possible sale of two hundred eighteen (218) M1A1 Abrams tank hulls with 120mm cannons and two hundred eighteen (218) AGT-1500 (M1 Tank Series) engines in support of its M1A2 tank recapitalization. Also included are transportation and other logistics support.

The estimated cost is $29 million.

This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country. Kuwait plays a large role in U.S. efforts to advance stability in the Middle East, providing basing, access, and transit for U.S. forces in the region.

This potential sale is associated with Congressional Notification 16-66 which was notified to Congress on December 12, 2016, regarding recapitalization of 218 Kuwait M1A2 tanks. Subsequent to the notification, Kuwait requested 218 M1A1 tank hulls from U.S. inventory be provided and upgraded vice using Kuwait’s current fleet of tanks due to its interest in maintaining operational readiness. Kuwait will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces.

The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.

The M1A1 tank hulls will come from U.S. inventory. There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.

Implementation of this proposed sale will not require the assignment of any additional U.S. Government or contractor representatives to Kuwait.

There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale.

This notice of a potential sale is required by law and does not mean the sale has been concluded.

Germany’s Leopard 2 Tank Was Considered One of the Best (Until It Went to Syria)

Germany’s Leopard 2 main battle tank has a reputation as one of the finest in the world, competing for that distinction with proven designs such as the American M1 Abrams and the British Challenger 2. However, that reputation for nigh-invincibility has faced setbacks on Syrian battlefields, and placed Berlin in a uniquely awkward national-level dispute with Turkey, its fellow NATO member.

Ankara had offered to release a German political prisoner in exchange for Germany upgrading the Turkish Army’s older-model Leopard 2A4 tank, which had proven embarrassingly vulnerable in combat. However, on January 24, public outrage over reports that Turkey was using its Leopard 2s to kill Kurdish fighters in the Syrian enclaves of Afrin and Manbij forced Berlin to freeze the hostage-for-tanks deal.

The Leopard 2 is often compared to its near contemporary, the M1 Abrams: in truth the two designs share broadly similar characteristics, including a scale-tipping weight of well over sixty tons of advanced composite armor, 1,500 horsepower engines allowing speeds over forty miles per hour and, for certain models, the same forty-four-caliber 120-millimeter main gun produced by Rheinmetall.

Both types can easily destroy most Russian-built tanks at medium and long ranges, at which they are unlikely to be penetrated by return fire from standard 125-millimeter guns. Furthermore, they have better sights with superior thermal imagers and magnification, that make them more likely to detect and hit the enemy first—historically, an even greater determinant of the victor in armored warfare than sheer firepower. A Greek trial found that moving Leopard 2s and Abramses hit a 2.3-meter target nineteen and twenty times out of twenty, respectively, while a Soviet T-80 scored only eleven hits.

The modest differences between the two Western tanks reveal different national philosophies. The Abrams has a noisy 1,500-horsepower gas-guzzling turbine, which starts up more rapidly, while the Leopard 2’s diesel motor grants it greater range before refueling. The Abrams has achieved some of its extraordinary offensive and defensive capabilities through use of depleted uranium ammunition and armor packages—technologies politically unacceptable to the Germans. Therefore, later models of the Leopard 2A6 now mount a higher-velocity fifty-five-caliber gun to make up the difference in penetrating power, while the 2A5 Leopard introduced an extra wedge of spaced armor on the turret to better absorb enemy fire.

German scruples also extend to arms exports, with Berlin imposing more extensive restrictions on which countries it is willing to sell weapons to—at least in comparison to France, the United States or Russia. While the Leopard 2 is in service with eighteen countries, including many NATO members, a lucrative Saudi bid for between four hundred and eight hundred Leopard 2s was rejected by Berlin because of the Middle Eastern country’s human-rights records, and its bloody war in Yemen in particular. The Saudis instead ordered additional Abramses to their fleet of around four hundred.

This bring us to Turkey, a NATO country with which Berlin has important historical and economic ties, but which also has had bouts of military government and waged a controversial counterinsurgency campaign against Kurdish separatists for decades. In the early 2000s, under a more favorable political climate, Berlin sold 354 of its retired Leopard 2A4 tanks to Ankara. These represented a major upgrade over the less well protected M60 Patton tanks that make up the bulk of Turkey’s armored forces.

However, the rumor has long persisted that Berlin agreed to the sale under the condition that the German tanks not be used in Turkey’s counterinsurgency operations against the Kurds. Whether such an understanding ever existed is hotly contested, but the fact remains that the Leopard 2 was kept well away from the Kurdish conflict and instead deployed in northern Turkey, opposite Russia.

However, in the fall of 2016, Turkish Leopard 2s of the Second Armored Brigade finally deployed to the Syrian border to support Operation Euphrates Shield, Turkey’s intervention against ISIS. Prior to the Leopard’s arrival, around a dozen Turkish Patton tanks were destroyed by both ISIS and Kurdish missiles. Turkish defense commentators expressed the hope that the tougher Leopard would fare better.

The 2A4 model was the last of the Cold War–era Leopard 2s, which were designed to fight in relatively concentrated units in a fast-paced defensive war against Soviet tank columns, not to survive IEDs and missiles fired by ambushing insurgents in long-term counterinsurgency campaigns where every single loss was a political issue. The 2A4 retains an older boxy turret configurations which affords less protection from modern antitank missiles, especially to the generally more vulnerable rear and side armor, which is a bigger problem in a counterinsurgency environment, where an attack may come from any direction.

This was shockingly illustrated in December 2016 when evidence emerged that numerous Leopard 2s had been destroyed in intense fighting over ISIS-held Al-Bab—a fight that Turkish military leaders described as a “trauma,” according to Der Spiegel. A document published online listed ISIS as apparently having destroyed ten of the supposedly invincible Leopard 2s; five reportedly by antitank missiles, two by mines or IEDs, one to rocket or mortar fire, and the others to more ambiguous causes.

These photos confirm the destruction of at least eight. One shows a Leopard 2 apparently knocked out by a suicide VBIED—an armored kamikaze truck packed with explosives. Another had its turret blown clean off. Three Leopard wrecks can be seen around the same hospital near Al-Bab, along with several other Turkish armored vehicles. It appears the vehicles were mostly struck the more lightly protected belly and side armor by IEDs and AT-7 Metis and AT-5 Konkurs antitank missiles.

Undoubtedly, the manner in which the Turkish Army employed the German tanks likely contributed to the losses. Rather than using them in a combined arms force alongside mutually supporting infantry, they were deployed to the rear as long-range fire-support weapons while Turkish-allied Syrian militias stiffened with Turkish special forces led the assaults. Isolated on exposed firing positions without adequate nearby infantry to form a good defensive perimeter, the Turkish Leopards were vulnerable to ambushes. The same poor tactics have led to the loss of numerous Saudi Abrams tanks in Yemen, as you can see in this video.

By contrast, more modern Leopard 2s have seen quite a bit of action in Afghanistan combating Taliban insurgents in the service of the Canadian 2A6Ms (with enhanced protection against mines and even floating “safety seats”) and Danish 2A5s. Though a few were damaged by mines, all were put back into service, though a Danish Leopard 2 crew member was mortally injured by an IED attack in 2008. In return, the tanks were praised by field commanders for their mobility and providing accurate and timely fire support during major combat operations in southern Afghanistan.

In 2017, Germany began rebuilding its tank fleet, building an even beefier Leopard 2A7V model more likely to survive in a counterinsurgency environment. Now Ankara is pressing Berlin to upgrade the defense on its Leopard 2 tanks, especially as the domestically produced Altay tank has been repeatedly delayed.

The Turkish military not only wants additional belly armor to protect against IEDs, but the addition of an Active Protection System (APS) that can detect incoming missiles and their point of origin, and jam or even shoot them down. The U.S. Army recently authorized the installation of Israeli Trophy APS on a brigade of M1 Abrams tanks, a type that has proven effective in combat. Meanwhile, Leopard 2 manufacturer Rheinmetall has unveiled its own ADATS APS, which supposedly poses a lesser risk of harming friendly troops with its defensive countermeasure missiles.

However, German-Turkish relations deteriorated sharply, especially after Erdogan initiated a prolonged crackdown on thousands of supposed conspirators after a failed military coup attempt in August 2016. In February 2017, German-Turkish dual-citizen Deniz Yücel, a correspondent for periodical Die Welt, was arrested by Turkish authorities, ostensibly for being a pro-Kurdish spy. His detention caused outrage in Germany.

Ankara pointedly let it be known that if a Leopard 2 upgrade were allowed to proceed, Yücel would be released back to Germany. Though Berlin publicly insisted it would never agree to such a quid pro quo, Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel quietly began moving towards authorizing the upgrade in a bid to improve relations in the face of what looks suspiciously like tank-based blackmail. Gabriel presented the deal as a measure to protect Turkish soldiers’ lives from ISIS.

However, in mid-January 2018, Turkey launched an offensive against the Kurdish enclaves of Afrin and Manbij in northwestern Syria. The attack was precipitated generally by Turkish fears that effective Kurdish control of the Syrian border would lead to a de facto state that would expand into Turkish territory, and proximately by an announcement by the Pentagon that it was recruiting the Kurds to form a “border security force” to continue the fight against ISIS.

However, photos on social media soon emerged showing that Leopard 2 tanks were being employed to blast Kurdish positions in Afrin, where there have several dozen civilian casualties have been reported. Furthermore, on January 21, the Kurdish YPG published a YouTube video depicting a Turkish Leopard 2 being struck by a Konkurs antitank missiles. However, it is not possible to tell if the tank was knocked out; the missile may have struck the Leopard 2’s front armor, which is rated as equivalent to 590 to 690 millimeters of rolled homogenous armor on the 2A4, while the two types of Konkurs missiles can penetrate six or eight hundred millimeters of RHA.

In any event, parliamentarians both from German left-wing parties and Merkel’s right-wing Christian Democratic Union reacted with outrage, with a member of the latter describing the Turkish offensive as a violation of international law. On January 25, the Merkel administration was forced to announce that an upgrade to the Leopard 2 was off the table, at least for now. Ankara views the deal as merely postponed, and cagey rhetoric from Berlin suggests it may return to the deal at a more politically opportune time.

Kuwait – Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance King Air 350ER

(Source: Defense Security Cooperation Agency; issued Feb. 21, 2018)

WASHINGTON --- The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Kuwait of King Air 350ER Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft for an estimated cost of $259 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale today.

Additionally, one of the four aircraft will be further modified to accommodate VIP/senior leadership personnel for transport and Med Evac capability or command and control, and other related elements of logistical support.

The estimated total case value is $259 million.

This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country. Kuwait plays a large role in U.S. efforts to advance stability in the Middle East, providing basing, access, and transit for U.S. forces in the region.

The proposed sale will enable Kuwait to gather its own airborne ISR data. This capability will improve Kuwait's situational awareness, armed forces posture, and armed forces capability to respond to threats. Enhancing Kuwait's Command, Control, Communications, Computers, & Intelligence (C4I) capability will result in the potential for greater burden sharing.

The proposed sale of items and services will establish Kuwait's first dedicated airborne ISR fleet. The King Air 350ER ISR is part of the Kuwaiti Air Force's rapid expansion and modernization efforts, and is a priority for Kuwait and the United States. Kuwait will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces.

The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.

The principal contractor will be Sierra Nevada Corporation, Hagerstown, MD. There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.

Implementation of this proposed sale will not require the long term assignment of any additional U.S. Government representatives to Kuwait. There will be U.S. contractor field representatives relocating to Kuwait in order provide day-to-day maintenance and logistics support.

There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale.

This notice of a potential sale is required by law and does not mean the sale has been concluded.